Imagine working for your parents’ business as a teenager. What would you do if a customer accused you of stealing his money? Would you handle it yourself or get your dad for help?

In this story, one teen was in this situation, and the customer told him to go get his dad.

It was a very stressful situation for the teen. He didn’t do anything wrong and hated being accusing of doing something wrong.

Keep reading for all the details.

Guy wanted me to check the register for HIS money

I’ve been working in retail for seven years (I’m 19, child labor laws do not apply when your family owns a small business) so I have my fair share of horror stories.

This one takes place when I first started working at my dad’s gas station/ convenience store. I was probably 12-14.

To get an idea of me at this age, I was a top student in my class, member of the National Junior Honor Society, and a deep-seeded fear of adult disappointment.

So, in other words, I was terrified of disappointing adults in authority (read: parents) and was a super nerd.

It was a slow day when a regular customer walked in…

So, Super Dork me is working the register some random day. I don’t remember it being too busy. No one else was in the store, my dad was in the back of the building in an attached garage (he used to be a mechanic but doesn’t do it anymore).

In comes a regular customer. Don’t remember having trouble with him before, but I also don’t remember being typically fond of him (working in a town that would put r/trashy to shame, you don’t make a lot of friends with the regulars).

He comes in and asks for a large quantity of the cigarettes he usually gets, maybe even a carton.

No problemo, but I have to go in the back room to get them because we don’t have enough in the front. So I do just that, bring back the cigarettes, and ring them up.

Here’s the problem…

This guy starts looking in his wallet and around the counter. He tells me he had three $20 bills on the counter and now they’re gone. He’s checking all of his pockets.

I shrug, I don’t know anything about it.

He asks me if I took it and already rang him up.

I know for certain I wouldn’t do that, not without already having the product to give to him. It just wouldn’t make sense for me to take the money, THEN go get the product.

The customer clearly needs to take responsibility for his own actions.

THEN he asks me to open the register so he could peek and see if there were $20s that “looked like his” (the register was far enough away he couldn’t reach in, I’m not that much of an idiot, guys).

So I open the register, obviously there’s money in there, but I guess they didn’t “look” like his.

He’s pretty convinced now that I took it.

I’ll remind you I was the type of child that would cry if a teacher called me out in class. It wouldn’t even occur to me to steal someone’s money.

The customer wanted proof.

So he asks me if there’s cameras, and I say yes.

He wants my dad to look on the cameras to see if I took it.

Well, my dad looked, and I didn’t.

Later the guy found his money (I forget where, God knows).

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Years later and that guy still comes in, and I still do not like him. He even came in a year or so ago and said something along the lines of how he could “trust me” now. Gee. Thanks.

What an awful customer service experience!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person whose colleague expected them to help pay for 11 elaborate birthday cakes they never agreed to buy.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person modifies what the customer said to emphasize how crazy their thought process really was.

Another person calls the customer bizarre.

A waitress shares a similar story, but she’s the customer in this case.

Another retail worker shares a time a customer accused them of stealing.

You never know what you’re going to encounter when you work retail, and the employee in this story learned that at a really young age. Obviously, he didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m sure his dad knew that when he looked at the security footage. It’s still an awful feeling to know someone doesn’t trust you.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a lifeguard who told one child they were too short for the slide, but struggled to convince them to follow the rules.